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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Social mobilization and its efficacy - a case study of social movements in Langa
Author:Tapscott, ChrisISNI
Year:2011
Periodical:Africanus (ISSN 0304-615X)
Volume:41
Issue:1
Pages:57-69
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:protest
popular participation
social and economic rights
urban housing
informal settlements
Abstract:The past decade has witnessed an upsurge of protest action across the length and breadth of South Africa, predominantly by communities dissatisfied with the pace and level of service delivery extended by their local authorities. This social mobilization is reflective of the failure both of the channels established to ensure citizen-State interaction and, most evidently, the failure of the local state to meet the expectations of its constituents. However, whilst protest action has emerged as a new form of engagement with the State and an assertion by citizens of their basic right to social and economic services, it is less clear how effective this social mobilization is in securing these rights. It is also unclear why some forms of collective action are more successful than others in extracting concessions from the State. This article examines mobilization by two communities in the suburb of Langa in Cape Town (i.e. Joe Slovo informal settlement and backyard dwellers) in their struggles for access to free public housing. The article argues that whilst political opportunity structures and resource mobilization, delineated in social movement literature, have influenced the outcome of social mobilization by both communities, less studied social opportunity structures have played an equally decisive role in determining these outcomes. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract]
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